WHERE DID IT GO?

Okay, so I'm all alone. What a weird feeling. They have all successfully left me for the world of "all day school". Maybe I needed another kid, but the reality of it is, that kid would one day leave for first grade too. Lizzie is excited and happy and so very ready, so with much trepidation and lack of sleep - l let her go... and she will be great.

I will be great too, eventually.

THE NEW ME...NO TONSILS ALLOWED

On August 14th, we ventured to Primary Children's Hospital to lose the tonsils that have given Lizzie grief for far too long. The few days leading up to "Tonsil Tuesday" were a little rough and she was very nervous, but when it finally came down to it, we had one teary moment and one very brave little girl.

She really was such a trooper and did SO well. Days 5-7 were probably her hardest. We kept her pain in check and after a week of lots of Hannah Montana and High School Musical 2, she is back to normal (except for the fact she is now extremely spoiled and doesn't let me out of her sight). We are very proud of her and we are so glad she'll be healthy and not have to deal with those nasty things! She still wishes she could have taken them home in a jar...yuck.

Summer at The Ranch

Every July we take a trip to Grandpa Greene's Ranch up in Atlanta, Idaho (population about 2, I swear. . .I'm not really a small town girl). Anyway, this is the kids favorite spot - they swim and motorcycle, float in the lake, play cards and maul their cousins for an entire week. Here are some of our favorite pictures.

I have to give a big thanks to Uncle Todd for lots of these pictures - I of course forgot my awesome camera. So thanks Todd - you rock. This is one he took of Alex on the motorcycle track.We are very spoiled by this beautiful swimming pool that is heated by a natural hot springs. For someone who is always FREEZING, this is really a dream come true. It is too warm for most everyone else, but I tend to really make the best of it all week.These poor guys were tormented for an entire week by. . .

These two. Looks like fun doesn't it? This is Todd and Val's cute bloodhound Maggie. We love her. The dogs wrestled like this at least once a day.

Some of the gang having smore's and sitting around the fire.

This is the airplane gang. One of the dining room tables was converted to a work station for these guys for the week. These planes are cool, but either the pilots aren't really that good or they just break A LOT. It is one of their favorite hobbies.

This is Alex and his cousin Tanner. I thought these were kind of cool shots.

Sydney and Makail getting ready to ride. You have to admit, they look pretty cool. Once they get started, they just go and go and go - like the energizer bunny on a motorcycle.

Little Brandon loved Lizzie's motorcycle almost as much as Lizzie. She was a maniac rider by the end of the trip. She even took a long ride driving by herself with me and Ev. She goes really slow which is just perfect for me because I crashed my bike one more time than everyone else did - yes - I was the only one to go down, but I jumped off so it was all good.

Group picture on one of the long rides.

The girls and their cousins Makail and Alyssa and the Master Frog Hunter Evan, caught just a few frogs to play with and one very stinky snake. During the night the frogs would escape, but come 10:30pm the next night, they'd catch them all again. I think we got up to 16. Gross.

This is the real hot spring that heats the pool. We always have to take a trip here and play for awhile. I'm leaving out a few things like jumping off the bridge into the freezing river, some of the crazy pool play and stuff like that, but all in all, we had a great week. There really isn't anywhere quite like The Ranch.Make no mistake, if we ever move to Atlanta, Idaho (population 2), this is what Evan will look like. Good stuff, don't you think?

Take only pictures, Leave only footprints

Bet you can't guess by the look on this cute dog's face where we just got back from. Is this the cutest Buddy picture, or what?! We had a great time in Lake Powell with five other families from our ward and neighborhood - the Morrison's, the Rasmussen's, the Summerhay's, the Willit's, and the Thompsen's (only 22 kids between us!). What great friends they are to put up with the heat, and sand - sometimes I really think I am over Lake Powell - or maybe I just really need a houseboat. Anyway, good times.

As always at Lake Powell (another reason I think I'm over it) we had a little wind. This is not our tent, this is the Thompsen's tent which happened to be housing an 8 month pregnant Katie Thompsen - the men made it strong again with Duct Tape of course! This was really the only casualty of the small tornado - thankfully.

Some serious sand castle business.

And a little cliff jumping - or in Lizzie's case, "My Mom threw me off!"

One of the highlights of the trip was the time that we took to name all of our boats. We were the only one's whose boat had a name when we left the Salt Lake Valley, now every other boat is officially named. . .take a look.

Moss Boat: MALIBU CHICKEN (I guess because it is a malibu and we like chicken? Remember our dog was named "Kris Moss" - creativity does not run deep in our family!)

Willits Boat: MAKE TIME (Max, Ali, Kurtis, Erika - creative huh?)

Morrison Boat: THE BREAD BOX (Chuck lost his wallet for the duration of the trip. He was convinced it was at the bottom of the lake or one of the kids took it out of the cup holder of one of the beach chairs - yeah right. It was miraculously found in the Morrison's Lake Powell bread box - just in time to buy gas to go home. . .thank heavens for small miracles!)

Thompsen Boat: THE JOLLY BLAJR (pronounced bloger for Brendan, Lauren, Addie, Josh, and soon to arrive, but already experienced Lake Powell - Riley!)

Rasmussen Boat (my personal favorite!): THE JACK RASSES (no explanation needed, obviously!)

Many thanks to our cute friends for such a fun week - we love you!

Couldn't Be More Proud. . .

So, the last few months have been full of dance and dance (just ask Alex how much he loves supporting his sisters dance competitions - Brad also decided that they shouldn't have daughters if this is what daughters do. . .). Our kids have worked so hard and I just want them to know how proud we are of them. They put in a ton of time to doing the things that they love. They are awesome, hard workers and we love them. Good job little dudes! We've almost hit a little break time, so I thought I'd share some highlight photos.

This is Syd and her cute "TRIO" buddies. (Yes, she is a bit of a Diva) These girls rocked the competition season with a 2nd place and two 1st places! Her team was awesome too - seven 1st's, one 2nd, and one 3rd, plus a couple of overall high point trophies. . .she loves the girls she dances with and we feel lucky to have found them! We had a great time on tour in St. George and our studio won the biggest award - The Performance Award - which was an unexpected bonus! Way to go Syd - and thanks to her Junior Elite group- YOU ROCK GIRLS!

Jr. Elite in their Hip Hop Class in St. George.

This is the whole gang at awards in St. George.

*****

Lizzie decided she was BRAVE enough to compete a solo this year. I'm old and not brave enough to do ANYTHING solo, so I think she is awesome! She won 2nd attendant and we think that is pretty great for a 6 year old! She should get 1st in cute-ness though! Her team took 2nd place in their WILD WEST dance - pictures will be coming!

Finally, a trophy that is, "Just my size!"

As you can see, getting her to pose is a little bit of a problem - NOT!

CONGRATULATIONS GIRLS!

Down In Mexico. . .

We took a great trip to Puerto Vallarta for Evan's parents

50th Wedding anniversary. I know, how lucky are we to get to

celebrate the whole thing with them in the sun and on the beach? It's rough.

We had a fun time just hanging out together. We all really got to relax.

They even talked me into a few (stupid) card games(I always lose). . .and the truth is I really only played because I love Evan's dad and he hates it when we won't play.

Anyway - thanks Don and Mary for everything. We love you.

Congratulations!

We got to go to church Sunday and though we didn't understand a thing (except for Evan who claims that he now speaks fairly fluent spanish because he bought a dictionary!) it was very cool to be reminded that the gospel is the same, where ever you go.

We got to meet these baby sea turtles one day. The hotel gets to incubate the eggs when they show up and then when they hatch they release them at night so the sea gulls and other sea monsters won't eat them. They let us all come to the beach and help them release the babies into the ocean. It was our National Geographic experience!

Besides playing cards, Evan got us all addicted to flying his kite. He and Duane are kite lovers so they flew a lot, but soon the rest of us joined his hobby and he had a hard time getting his kite back. It was a blast! Thanks Ev, for forcing me to learn!